Starting Monday, 2/16 we will be rolling out a seven part series looking at coaches who could be future targets for ODU, whenever that time comes. Check in each day to follow along with our Coaching Madness brackets to get to know the field.
Let’s get the big elephant out of the room first: Mike Jones is our coach. He hasn't been fired, and by all accounts, he’s going to be leading the Monarchs into next season. This isn't an expectation—it’s a "What If?" simulation. As fans, we love to debate the "who’s next," and with the landscape of college basketball shifting every five minutes, we wanted to take an analytical look at the coaching landscape.
We’ve all seen the message board threads and the social media polls. Usually, it’s a battle of "vibes." We decided to take it a step further. We’ve built a proprietary 51-Candidate Bracket to find out who the actual best fit for Old Dominion would be if the seat were ever to open.
The Methodology: Defining Targetability To make this more than just a list, we evaluated every candidate across five key pillars: Win Record, Recruiting, Program Building, Readiness, and Star Power. But the core of this series is the Targetability Score.
Targetability isn't just about a coach's resume; it’s a calculation that considers both Quality and Hireability. In this tournament:
The Seed is determined by the Quality Score (pedigree and wins).
The Winner is determined by the Targetability Rank.
A "Dream Hire" might have a #1 seed in Quality, but if their Targetability is low because they are likely out of reach, they will be "upset" by a more realistic, high-value candidate.
The Roadmap Over the coming weeks, we will roll out the results of this data-driven hunt:
Selection Sunday: Revealing the field, seeds, and scouting reports.
The Play-In Round: Watching the bottom of the bracket battle for a spot in the Round of 32.
The Tournament Rounds: Data-driven matchups where Targetability determines who moves on.
The Final Four Profiles: Deep dives into the four survivors.
The Championship: Crowning the ideal Monarch hire.
Note: This is all for fun. I hope you enjoy it, I am certain you will be surprised by where that leads, I know I was. I am not going to say this is in any way a definitive approach. I seriously doubt the process would play out anywhere close to the way this is going to unfold, but nonetheless, I do think this a fun way to get to know the coaches that are out there and could be available whenever ODU does find itself in the market for its next coach.